TCFD and TNFD – Sustainabilty and Biodiversity Strategy & Reporting
Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD)
Nature loss is increasingly recognised as a strategic and financial risk. For boards, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) provides a clear, credible framework to understand how nature-related issues affect business strategy, resilience, risk management and long-term value.
Building on our approach to sustainability and ESG reports and disclosures, this page explains how TNFD has evolved from climate disclosure, how organisations are responding in practice, and how Changing Footprint supports boards and executive teams to deliver clear, decision-useful TNFD-aligned reporting.
From TCFD to TNFD: the evolution of sustainability disclosure
What is TCFD?
The Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) was established to improve the quality, consistency and comparability of climate-related financial reporting. It introduced a decision-useful structure built around four pillars:
- Governance – board oversight and management responsibility for climate-related risks and opportunities
- Strategy – the impact of climate issues on the business model, strategy and financial planning
- Risk management – processes for identifying, assessing and managing climate-related risks
- Metrics and targets – how climate performance is measured and monitored
TCFD has been widely adopted by companies, investors and regulators. In the UK, it is embedded in mandatory reporting requirements and now underpins broader sustainability disclosure standards.
How companies are approaching TNFD
TNFD has been intentionally designed to follow the same four-pillar structure as TCFD. This allows boards and management teams to address nature-related issues using familiar governance, strategy and risk management concepts, and to integrate nature into existing disclosure and decision-making processes.
While TCFD focuses on climate-related risks and opportunities, TNFD expands the scope to include:
- Dependencies on nature, such as water availability, soil health and ecosystem services
- Impacts on nature across operations and value chains
- Location-specific considerations, recognising that nature-related risks vary by ecosystem and geography
For many organisations, TNFD is best approached as a natural extension of existing TCFD work rather than a standalone reporting exercise.
How TNFD builds on TCFD
Boards are increasingly taking a phased, proportionate approach to TNFD, balancing the need for credible disclosure with evolving data availability and regulatory expectations. In practice, this often involves:
- Leveraging existing TCFD governance, controls and risk management frameworks.
- Conducting high-level screening of nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities.
- Piloting TNFD-aligned disclosures alongside existing annual or sustainability reports.
- Prioritising material business activities, value chains and geographies before expanding coverage
This approach supports early action and learning, while allowing disclosures to mature over time.
The LEAP approach: turning nature into board-level insight
At the core of TNFD is the LEAP approach, a structured assessment process that helps organisations translate complex nature-related information into decision-useful insight.
What is LEAP?
LEAP stands for:
- Locate – identify where operations, assets and value chains interact with nature
- Evaluate – assess dependencies on, and impacts to, nature at those locations
- Assess – analyse the resulting risks and opportunities, including financial implications
- Prepare – respond through strategy, risk management, targets and disclosures
LEAP is not a reporting requirement in itself. Instead, it provides the analytical foundation that underpins robust, defensible TNFD disclosures.
How companies are using LEAP
In practice, organisations are applying LEAP to:
- Identify priority locations where nature-related risks and dependencies are most significant.
- Connect environmental impacts and dependencies to financial, operational and strategic risks.
- Inform scenario analysis and business resilience discussions at board level.
- Support the development of metrics, targets, policies and transition plans
LEAP is deliberately flexible. Boards can approve an initial high-level assessment and progressively deepen analysis as expectations, data quality and internal capability evolve.
How we deliver TCFD and TNFD
Changing Footprint works with boards and executive teams to deliver clear, proportionate and credible climate and nature disclosures that support better decisions and investor confidence.
Our approach is structured, practical and aligned to how boards operate in practice.
1. Establish board oversight and scope
We begin by working with the board and senior management to clarify governance, accountability and scope. This includes confirming how TCFD and TNFD fit within existing governance structures, risk committees and reporting cycles.
We help boards define:
- The organisational boundary and priority business activities.
- Relevant time horizons.
- Roles and responsibilities for climate- and nature-related risks
This ensures disclosures are grounded in clear oversight and decision-making from the outset.
2. Build on existing TCFD foundations
For most organisations, TNFD builds naturally on existing TCFD-aligned climate reporting. We review current disclosures, risk registers and processes to identify what can be reused, refined or extended.
This step avoids duplication and helps organisations:
- Leverage existing governance and risk management frameworks.
- Align climate and nature narratives.
- Maintain consistency across sustainability and annual reports
3. Apply proportionate LEAP-based assessments
We apply the LEAP approach in a way that is proportionate to your organisation’s size, sector and geographic footprint. Initial assessments focus on identifying priority locations, dependencies and impacts rather than exhaustive data collection.
This provides boards with:
- A clear view of where nature-related issues matter most.
- An evidence base for identifying material risks and opportunities.
- A defensible foundation for TNFD-aligned disclosures
4. Translate nature and climate issues into business risk and opportunity
We support management teams to assess how identified climate- and nature-related issues translate into financial, operational and strategic risks and opportunities.
This includes consideration of:
- Physical and transition risks.
- Supply-chain resilience.
- Regulatory and planning risk.
- Reputational and licence-to-operate considerations
The focus is on integrating these insights into enterprise risk management and strategic planning, rather than treating them as standalone ESG issues.
5. Develop metrics, targets and transition actions
Where appropriate, we support the development of metrics, targets and management actions aligned to both TCFD and TNFD. These are tailored to the organisation and focused on decision-useful information rather than generic indicators.
This may include:
- Climate and nature-related performance metrics.
- Targets linked to risk reduction or resilience.
- Capital allocation or policy responses
6. Deliver clear, board-ready disclosures
Finally, we support the preparation of clear, concise and credible disclosures aligned to TCFD and TNFD recommendations. These are written for boards, investors and regulators, avoiding unnecessary technical detail while meeting stakeholder expectations.
We ensure disclosures are:
- Consistent across reporting channels.
- Clearly linked to governance, strategy and risk management.
- Scalable as expectations and requirements evolve
We focus on practical implementation, helping organisations move from understanding risk to embedding it within governance, strategy and capital allocation.
Why TNFD, and why now?
Although TNFD is currently voluntary, several converging drivers mean boards are increasingly expected to understand and disclose nature-related risks:
- Regulatory direction of travel – TNFD aligns closely with international sustainability standards and the Global Biodiversity Framework, increasing the likelihood of future regulatory adoption.
- Investor scrutiny – investors are seeking clearer insight into nature-related risks, particularly in sectors exposed to land use, water stress and supply-chain disruption.
- Risk management and resilience – biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation and water scarcity can create material operational, cost and supply-chain risks.
- Reputation and licence to operate – stakeholders expect credible oversight of environmental impacts, not just climate emissions.
- Board accountability – nature-related issues are increasingly viewed as governance, trust and reputational considerations, not purely environmental ones.
Taking action now allows organisations to stay ahead of regulation, shape their narrative, and embed nature into strategic decision-making rather than reacting under time pressure later.
If you would like to discuss how TNFD and LEAP could apply to your organisation, please get in touch to explore a tailored, board-focused approach.
Frequently Asked Questions
TNFD is not currently mandatory. However, it is closely aligned with UK climate reporting requirements and international sustainability standards, making it a likely reference point for future regulation.
No. TNFD encourages a phased approach. Many organisations begin with high-level screening and progressively deepen their LEAP analysis over time.
TNFD complements existing ESG reporting by providing a structured, financial-risk-focused lens on nature. It can be integrated into annual reports, sustainability reports or standalone disclosures.
Yes. TNFD has been designed to align closely with TCFD, allowing organisations to use shared governance, risk management and reporting structures.
Organisations with significant interaction with land, water and natural resources – including property, infrastructure, food and agriculture, manufacturing and financial services – are often early priorities.